I disagree with the idea of trial as an adult and federal trial - except as a serious threat. My guess is that Johnson is a small-time thug wannabe, playing at being a heavy-hitter by acting as a free-lance gun dealer, and probably selling to other people like himself (i.e., poor, disaffected, not-too-bright, working-class black H.S. dropouts). Given the time it took him to get the guns and the variety of sources, I’d bet that he was acting as broker, buying guns from other hustlers and selling them to the cops at a serious mark-up.

Also, who knows if he was selling to anyone other than the cops? He might have just bragged to an undercover cop that he could get guns, and the cop took him up on the deal, giving the kid enough rope to hang himself.

Ideally, since Johnson is young and presumably not that hardened, the prosecutor can get scare him into copping a plea in exchange for cooperation. That way the police can nail anyone he sold a gun to, as well as the people he bought guns from. The ultimate goal being to get guns off the street rather than putting stupid kids in jail. That is, assuming Johnson is not too stupid, realizes just how deep he’s in the shit and cooperates with the police. Of course, even if Johnson doesn’t cooperate, the cops can say that he is cooperating, thus forcing anyone who did buy a gun from him to get rid of the weapon (at least if they’re smart and have a bit of common sense, which, given the IQ of your average gansta, is not a given).